Unemployment dynamics with international capital mobility

We study the response of domestic unemployment rates to shocks in total factor productivity for economies with high capital mobility and low labour mobility. We show that high capital mobility amplifies the impact on the domestic unemployment rate of domestic fluctuations in total factor productivity, shortens the lag of the response to shocks and raises the variability of unemployment. But average unemployment is unaffected. Capital flows increase the riskiness of labour income and reduce the riskiness of capital income but do not reduce mean welfare.     

Asset price fluctuations without aggregate shocks

We analyze the pricing of a productive asset in a class of dynamic exchange economies with heterogeneous, infinitely-lived agents, and self-enforcing intertemporal trades. Individual incomes fluctuate and are correlated; preferences, dividends and aggregate income are fixed. Almost all economies in this class have a unique stationary Markovian equilibrium with fluctuations in asset prices. As the set of unrationed households changes over time and states, excess demand functions shift, asset returns fluctuate, and some households are shut out of asset markets. Examples suggest that the amplitude of these movements is negatively correlated with the productivity of the asset and with the penalty for default.     

Trend-reverting fluctuations in the life-cycle model

Aggregate time series provide evidence of short-term dynamic adjustment that appears to be governed by complex or negative real eigenvalues. This finding is at odds with the predictions of reasonably parameterized, convex one-sector growth models with complete markets. We study life-cycle economies in which aggregate saving depends non-trivially on the distribution of wealth among cohorts. If consumption goods are weak gross substitutes near the steady-state price vector, we prove that the unique equilibrium of a life-cycle exchange economy converges to the unique non-monetary steady state via damped oscillations. We also discuss examples and extensions.     

Determinants of spreads on new high yield bonds of shipping companies

This paper investigates determinants of pricing of new high yield bond offerings of shipping companies. New high yield bond offerings issued by shipping companies in the US market, during the period 1993–1998, are used in the investigation. The empirical results suggest that credit rating is the major determinant of the price spread of the bond offerings. Financial leverage and shipping market conditions also account for a significant part of the price variability.     

Predicting the Crises of the Greek Drachma

The paper investigates the role of fundamentals in the speculative episodes experienced by the Greek drachma during the 1990s, and examines whether the openness of the Greek economy has altered the role of fundamentals in the likelihood of a currency crisis. An interesting aspect of the empirical analysis is that the crises are related significantly to macroeconomic fundamentals of the Greek economy. The analysis shows that the openness of the Greek economy has introduced new elements and concerns in the predictability of speculative attacks on the drachma.     

A random coefficient model of speculative attacks: The case of the Mexican peso

A considerable body of theoretical and empirical literature has developed seeking to explain the timing, magnitude, and mechanics of speculative attacks against currencies. This paper extends the empirical specification of the traditional speculative attack model by developing a random coefficient (RC) model which, as we show, encompasses a variety of fixed-coefficient models as special cases. Two classes of models (fixed- and random-coefficient models) are estimated for the case of Mexican peso over the period January 1988 to Novemeber 1994, while forecasts of the peso/U.S. dollar exchange rate are generated for the period December 1994 through December 1995. The comparison of forecast errors generated by five model specifications indicates that forecasts based on the RC procedures are superior to those based on the fixed-coefficient estimation. It is also shown that there are good theoretical reasons why the RC procedure performs better in prediction than the fixed-coefficient procedure.     

Common markets and trade liberalization

Abstract.  The GATT Rounds show that trade liberalization is essentially a cooperative non‐stationary dynamic process. Therefore, the impact of Regionalism on trade liberalization possibly changes over time. I adapt the trade liberalization model of Devereux (1997) to examine how this impact varies. Common markets lead to a one‐time shock in immediate tariffs, as well as to a change in their rate of decline. I find that common markets that happen late in the trade liberalization process are more likely to lead to a decline in immediate tariffs. Common markets also increase the rate of decline of tariffs after their formation. JEL Classification: F03, F15     

Endogenous Debt Constraints in Lifecycle Economies

We characterize competitive equilibria with perfect foresight in a deterministic, three-period pure-exchange overlapping generations economy with perfect information and no commitment to loan contracts. Commitment is replaced by an enforcement mechanism that excludes defaulters from asset markets for one period. For hump-shaped endowment profiles, young individuals face endogenous debt constraints that ration current consumption. Changes in current and future yields affect these constraints, inducing an additional income effect on rationed household demand that makes current and future consumption complements. This mechanism can lead to multiple steady states, persistent indeterminacy and regime switching. We show that sensitivity to shocks and complex dynamic behaviour are consistent with endogenous debt limits but not with exogenous liquidity constraints.